One Degree Hotter

As a doctor, I will be saving lives. Individual lives. But what if I want to affect an entire population? What if saving a single life isn’t enough? I’ve taken a break from the hospital this year to pursue a Masters in Public Health. As a self-proclaimed social justice warrior (I know that label might have a negative connotation but I wear it proudly) and a lover of all things medicine, the decision to get a Masters in Public Health was a no-brainer. It’s frustrating how undervalued the field of Public Health is. Curative medicine is more attractive to the public than preventative medicine is. And in our individualistic (“it’s their problem, not mine”) society, people don’t realize (or choose to not realize) how much the health of their society affects them. But those in public health still find ways to change the world. It’s a thankless, but meaningful, field of medicine. I love everything I'm learning so far. My classes are addressing the problems I always talk about. But now I'm learning how to actually do something about them. So many things about our healthcare system need to be improved and I'm learning how to make a real impact. Even our first required project will transform a community (I'll write more about that later). I'm excited for what this year will bring.

After this year, I will return to the hospital with the rest of my med school classmates and graduate as a doctor with a Masters.

I have another reason for getting this second degree. All around me, I’ve seen classmates either burn out or get close to burning out. You know something they don’t tell you before you start med school? We have the highest number of suicides than any other grad school program. That includes law schools, pharmacy schools, nursing schools, and others. But it isn’t because of the coursework. We have an unspoken culture in medicine that makes us believe that asking for help is a weakness. We lose sleep, stop eating, and simply forget how to relax when we pour our hearts and souls into this field we love so much. And when we start to feel overwhelmed, instead of getting help, we look around and realize everyone else seems to have everything together.

If they can do it, I can do it.

I don't need a support team.

I don't want to be that one person who's struggling.

(Some people in my support team ^^ There's nothing wrong with asking for help)

So we, like the rest of our classmates, pretend we have it all together as well, unknowingly contributing to the problem. Instead of finding help, we continue to push ourselves even more. There is so much we have to do outside of school work. Honestly, almost every extracurricular thing is very fun and interesting to me and most other students. It's the balance we don't understand. Because everything is so interesting we give our all to every activity. Some of us forget to step back and breath. Not only is burn out a problem for students and doctors, it’s a problem for the patients. When doctors are out of it, people can die. It is dangerous to let doctors spiral into insanity. You don't want to put your life in the hands of an unstable physician. This is a culture my school, and many other schools, are trying to change.

I want to be an emergency room doctor

Did you know that emergency physicians have the highest rate of burnout than any other specialty? It doesn't have to be this way. I love the emergency department. I love the adrenaline, the blood and guts, the life or death situations. It excites me. I can't imagine doing anything else with my life. This means that I'll hold more lives in my hands than my peers in other specialties. So I need to make sure that I'm mentally fit to do that. This year I'll get to refresh my mind and learn how to impact the community. Through my MD program, I'll learn how to impact individuals. I'll be able to influence change through all layers of society. 

Thus begins my MPH year.